Buttigieg Struggles With Response To Police Brutality Outcry Back Home

LONDONDERRY, NH - APRIL 19: Democratic Presidential candidate, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks during a campaign stop at Stonyfield Farms on April 19, 2019 in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Recent polls are sho...LONDONDERRY, NH - APRIL 19: Democratic Presidential candidate, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg speaks during a campaign stop at Stonyfield Farms on April 19, 2019 in Londonderry, New Hampshire. Recent polls are showing Buttigieg is gaining ground with Democrats in the presidential nominating states of Iowa and New Hampshire. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)MORE LESS

South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg helmed a contentious town hall meeting Sunday as he’s struggled to deal with the outcry after a black man was shot by white police officers.

According to Politico, Buttigieg conceded that “the effort to recruit more minority officers to the police department and the effort to introduce body cameras have not succeeded and I accept responsibility for that.”

Sgt. Ryan O’Neill fatally shot Eric Logan after a call came in about someone rifling through the contents of parked cars. Prosecutors say Logan was wielding a knife, but confirmation is difficult since O’Neill never turned on his body camera, according to NBC.

The town hall reportedly stretched for two hours, with Buttigieg occasionally getting frustrated as those in the crowd shouted over his answers or yelled accusations. One audience member cried that Buttigieg was “lying”; another yelled “we don’t trust you.”

This isn’t the first time Buttigieg has struggled to navigate the racial dynamics of law enforcement in his hometown. At the beginning of his term, he demoted the city’s first black police chief, Darryl Boykins, for not disclosing that he was the subject of an FBI investigation for tapping the phones of senior officers he claimed were making racist comments about him. Boykins later sued, saying that the taping issue was used as pretext for a firing based in racism.

Kate Riga (@Kate_Riga24)
is a newswriter for TPM and a contributor to the Josh Marshall Podcast, based in New York City. A Philadelphia native, Kate graduated from Georgetown University and previously worked as a political reporter at the Southampton Press in New York.